God! Seriously! Whenever I read the sports pages or the official Mets web site, I think, "Jeez, I would love to be doing that, but I don't know a pick-and-roll from a hail-mary."
The Oscar Madisons of this world describe emotions, atmosphere, personalities. They rail against injustices. They develop themes that pop up throughout their articles, ending with a neat callback to the first graf. God! Sports writers do some fun writing.
I don't know, maybe the secret is to work for a daily paper where there just isn't time to scrutinize every word, or for hand-wringing over "hitting the right tone" or "voicing to our audience." You can't edit things to death when they're already halfway out the door -- or maybe this is just a romantic notion. I really have no idea, I've only worked in magazines.
I just would love to write like a sports writer, but about other stuff. Imagine? UCCCH, apparently I can't, as I just tried and the results are not, as they say, fit to print.
Hey, are you people as annoyed by I am by the popularity and endless emailability of that fricking Shamu story? What? Wasn't there a book about using dog-training principles in your relationships, like five years ago? Now she's going to get a book deal. I'm seven shades of green.
5 comments:
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S ucks!
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I think the Yankee website has better sports writing.
I can not believe I just allowed that to post. Freedom of speech, people.
Just glad the friggin' Yankees have been pulled back to earth during the season thus far.
I love sports writers. I think they have a very classic scenario in which to exercise their abilities. There's usually a winner and a loser. There's almost always a noteworthy turning point or point of no return in the event. Plus, they generally care about that which they're covering. How great is that?
Right, that's the other thing, and it's sorely missing from most other writey-stuff, as far as I can tell. I know it's difficult for me to muster up enthusiasm for yet another 10-romance-this or 8-dateworthy-that.
Which means I may indeed be projecting my non-thusiasm on the rest of the journalistic spectrum... but I think I'm reading a lot of bored writers lately, which is why sports writing jumps out at me.
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